Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 14)
I was raised up high in honor, but then I was humbled and overwhelmed with confusion. (From para. 14 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Confusion would be an unhappy end to the story, if I remained demoralized forever. But whenever I can confront humiliation with an open heart, I am brought, through grace, to a radical acceptance of what is, and thus to a redemptive experience.
“The seventh degree of humility is, when, not only with his tongue he declareth, but also in his inmost soul believeth, that he is the lowest and vilest of men. . . “. The great psychiatrist, Carl Jung, expresses Benedict’s wisdom here this way: “My pilgrim’s progress has been to climb a thousand ladders until I could finally extend a hand of friendship to the little clod of earth that I am.”
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